Cruise
by Spobytastic
Summary: Nick, Jess, Schmidt, and Cece promise that their relationships won't make things awkward on a trip to the Caribbean on a luxury cruise ship, but knowing them, the trip is going to be nothing BUT awkward.
1. Chapter 1

MAIN PAIRINGS: NESS (Nick/Jess), SHMECE (Schmidt/Cece)

The next chapter will be longer, I promise. Based off of the season finale coming out May 6th.

Cruise

CHAPTER 1

* * *

"Guess what _The Schmidtty_ just got from work today? Wait, don't answer or try to guess that, because I am going to tell you right now." He reached into his bag and got out a brochure. "That is correct, I got six tickets to a beautiful cruise ship sailing towards the Caribbean. Well, you may be wondering, _'Oh my, Schmidt! How did you get such a great offer? Wasn't it expensive?'_. Nope, it didn't cost me a penny because a co-worker of mine was going to go on a cruise with her gal-pals but they can't make it in time, so, as her former sexual partner, I got us some tickets for no cost at all. Thank you, thank you very much."

And everyone in the loft was left... shocked.

"We're going on a cruise?" Nick exclaimed happily, practically leaping out of his seat. "Oh, Schmidtty, I could hug you right now! Is it just going to be us six?"

"Well, obviously," Schmidt said, rolling his eyes. "I told you I got six tickets, do the math, Miller. My co-worker had eight tickets, but I didn't want to be greedy."

"But there's only five of us here," Coach pointed out, rolling his eyes. "I thought you were the one who's supposed to be good at math. You don't get to yell at Nick if you can't even count to five properly!"

"Oh, grow up, Ernie!" Schmidt yelled, folding his arms. "I am a successful businessman. I think I know how to count to five. I was planning on inviting Cece to come, too. Usually she's here all the time to see Jess, but for some reason she's not today, which I don't understand, but—"

"What? You want to invite our ex-girlfriend on a cruise ship with us?" Coach asked, raising his eyebrows. "That's a bad idea."

"First of all, she's not your ex, she's mine. You went on one date with her! I actually dated her and had an enjoyable sexual experience with her, and fell in love with her, and—" Schmidt began, but realized he was trailing off. "Anyway, second of all, she is my friend now, and I will invite her if I want to."

"Excuse me, but above being your ex and your friend, she is my_ best_ friend, so you can't top that!" Jess yelled. "Neither of you can!"

"Je-ss," Nick whined and reached over to put his arms around her. When he did, he received all sorts of weird looks from his friends. "What?" Then he realized. "Oh god, I'm sorry, I really am. I forgot... damn it, this is awkward now. Why do you guys always have to make everything awkward?"

"We didn't make it awkward, Nick," Coach said, rolling his eyes. "You did."

"You know, I love the sound of going on a cruise with you all, but we shouldn't do it," Winston spoke up, shaking his head. "This cruise ship think is just asking for constant drama and trouble! It's going to be awful, and we all know the two people who are going to make it unmanageable."

All eyes shifted to Nick and Jess.

"What? Us?" Jess questioned, shaking her head. "Winston, what the hell are you talking about?"

"No, no, no, Winston's right," Schmidt said, nodding his head. "This weekend would have been a disaster with Nick and Jess's awkwardness. I'm calling off the trip. I'll tell my co-worker Cynthia to come take her tickets back."

"Schmidt, no!" Nick cried, jumping off the couch and almost attacking him. "Look, man, I know Jess and I just broke up, but we are truly still friends, and we can handle this trip without awkwardness. It will be just like it was before we dated, except Coach is here, too... Anyways, please, can you trust me? We can do this. Don't call off the trip."

"I don't understand why we are being picked on for a bad break up!" Jess cried. "Your break up with Cece was way worse! How do we know you won't ruin the trip by getting back together with her and then just cheating on her again?"

"That was a dark time for me, Jess, you didn't have to bring it up!" Schmidt cried, folding his arms. "Insulting me will not make me want to call the trip back on, smart ass!"

"God, Jess, why can't you learn to—" Nick began, but then stared at the floor. "I mean, it's okay, bab—god, I'm just gonna go with not commenting at all in this situation."

"See? There's the awkwardness!" Winston exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "They can't do it, guys. They can't handle this trip."

"Oh my god, yes we can," Jess said, nodding her head. "It's just gonna be all of us together on a big ass cruise ship as friends! But can _Schmidt_ handle it?"

"What? _What_? Of course _I_ can handle it, it's you that can't!" he snapped. "Wait, why wouldn't I be able to handle it? I'm friendly with everyone at the moment!"

"I don't know, Cece may be texting her hot new Aussie boyfriend all the time," Jess taunted, smirking at him. "In fact, I think she's hanging out with him right now, and she could be getting frisky with him at this very moment!"

The thought obviously bothered Schmidt, but to his luck, the door bursted open, and it was Cece.

"Cece!" Schmidt cried, his voice cracking. "Where were you?"

"Um, I had some modeling stuff to take care of, sorry," she said, causing Schmidt to proudly look at Jess.

"Have you had sex with Buster?" Jess bursted out, causing Cece's eyes to go wide.

"This trip is gonna be nothing but awkward..." Winston whispered to Coach, who nodded his head in agreement.


	2. Chapter 2

I just realized that in the synopsis for the show's finale, Nick and Jess booked the cruise, but I'm not changing it in the story

Cruise

CHAPTER 2

* * *

_"We PROMISE we won't make it weird."_

_"Yeah! Nick and I can stay calm and act like friends."_

_"Oh, so you have to act like my friend? We're not really friends?"_

_"That's not what I—never mind."_

* * *

8:30 AM, and they were all boarding the cruise ship. Showing their tickets, they boarded, and were all given room keys. An attractive looking man escorted them to their room. Unfortunately, the room wasn't what they were expecting. It was small. And it was meant for all six of them.

"We're _sharing_ one room?" Winston cried, shaking his head. "Come on! There's like so space in here. Where... where am I going to do my jigsaw puzzles?"

The attractive man smiled and said, "Well, there's tons to do on the ship, so all you've got to do is sleep here, and in the morning, you can spend the day in paradise. There are plenty of tables on the other decks where you can do all the jigsaw puzzles you want, sir."

Winston smiled to himself a little bit, feeling assured that he would have his time and space for jigsaw puzzles when they got to roam around the ship.

"Is there anywhere else we can sleep?" Jess asked, scratching her head. "I don't know if I can cram myself in this tiny room with all these people."

"Unfortunately, no, you can't exchange your tickets so late in the trip, I'm sorry," he said, sighing. "But, my staff suite is quite sweet. If you wanna crash there one night, feel free to come by whenever you want, doll." Jess smiled to herself, blushing. She also knew that Nick was hearing the whole thing, and the thought of him being jealous sort of made her happy.

"Wow... Jeffrey," she said, reading his name tag. "That's so sweet of you. I think I might actually take you up on that offer some time. A staff suite seems sweet, it really does. I like your puns, too!"

Jeffrey grinned and said, "Awesome. Can I get a name from you?"

"I'm Jess Day," she said sweetly with a smile.

"Jess, that's an adorable name," Jeffrey said, smiling back at her. "I should probably get back to work. If you see me around, talk to me."

They all started to walk into their tiny room.

"That Jeffrey dude was like straight up flirting with Jess!" Coach exclaimed, grinning at Winston. "Do ya think that Nick was jealous?"

"Knowing Nick, probably," Winston replied, nodding his head. "He might not say anything about it, though, because he made that promise not to make this trip weird for everyone else."

"Yeah," Coach said, nodding as well. "Where is he, anyways?"

* * *

"JEFFREY!" Nick yelled, running after the employee. He turned around and raised his eyebrows, unsure of why he was yelling.

"Um... hey. You're one of the people that was with Jess, right?" Jeffrey said with a smile. "I see you still remember my name. May I help you?"

"Why are you flirting with Jess?" Nick demanded. "Why her? Yes, she's beautiful and amazing, but there was a hot model standing right next to her. Most people go for the model instead of the average school teacher!"

"Well, she stuck out to me," Jeffrey said, shrugging. "The other girl? Well, I thought she was dating that guy with all the moles on his face."

"Schmidt?" Nick asked, his eyes widening. "Oh! No, no, no, they're not dating. Well, they were, but then it got all messy and they broke up, but that's not what I'm here to say. I'm here to tell you to stop flirting with Jess!"

"I'm not gonna stop flirting with her, dude," Jeffrey said. "I like her. Do you have a problem with that, sir?"

"Yes, I have a problem with that because... um... I'm her boyfriend," Nick lied. "I'm her boyfriend, and I don't like it when other guys flirt with her, so back off. Stay away from my girlfriend. Don't betray the bro code, brother!"

"Oh man, I didn't know that she's your girl!" Jeffrey cried. "Hey, I'm sorry for flirting with her, then. I didn't know, I swear. You should've spoken up when we were back there. I'll stay away from her, kay?"

"Thank you, but I didn't wanna make a scene in front of everybody," Nick lied again, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I didn't wanna ruin the trip already, because as you can see, I'm kinda a jealous guy. I don't want Jess to freak out, so can we please keep this thing between us guys? Just don't tell her."

"I get it," Jeffrey said, nodding his head. "I won't tell her, and I'll stay away. Thanks for telling me, man. I really should get back to work... so, see ya later."

* * *

"Hey, I think we need some cans of beer over here if we're gonna make this night fun," Schmidt spoke, scratching his head. "Does anyone have any beer?"

"Why?" Cece asked, jumping off her bed and facing him with a smile. "You're not planning on playing True American in this tiny space, are you?"

"Pshh, no," he said in a mock-lying voice, causing the both of them to laugh just a little. "As fun as True American is, I don't think a night is complete without a little bit of beer!"

"Can't go one day staying completely sober, can you?" she teased.

"What!? Of course I can!" he argued, folding his arms.

"_Cece_, I need to talk to you! Hurry up!"

She shrugged her shoulders and said, "I don't believe you, but I gotta go, Jess is calling. Stay sober if you can, Schmidt." Her hand gently brushed against his back before she walked away to find Jess, who was probably about to rant about her fractured relationship with Nick.

"I think... I think I can't give Cece space any longer," Schmidt confessed, turning to Winston and Coach. "I mean, I've been trying, but I can't do it. I still have feelings for her, guys! I have to win her back. I love her."

"Schmidt, look, it's great that you love her," Winston began, sighing quietly, "but you have to remember that you really hurt her, and she's got a boyfriend now."

"Buster, mmm, that boy is _fine_!" Coach exclaimed in his girl voice.

"Not helping, Coach," Schmidt said, folding his arms. "Winston, I know she has a boyfriend, and I've tried respecting that, but how can I do it any longer? I've wanted to do this for a long time to make it up to her, but I was trying to give her space. Now that I'm sure of how I feel about her, I think it's time I do it."

He whipped out a tiny, dark red box from his jacket pocket and showed it off to Coach and Winston. Their eyes went wide. Was that what they thought it was? It couldn't be! Winston knew he almost proposed to Cece once by skywriting it, but that was when their relationship was much less complicated.

"Damn..." Coach mumbled.

"Schmidt!" Winston cried. "You can't actually be serious, can you? If she says no and tells Buster about it, he's gonna be pissed. And you can't just spring that serious commitment question on her! You would be lucky if she takes you back as her boyfriend again!"

"What? This _is_ about becoming her boyfriend again," Schmidt said, confused. "Oh! You must think this is an engagement ring, right? Well, it's not. I just needed a grand gesture. It's a ring, and that's all. But it's a special ring. We were out one time and she told me she really loved it."

"Aww, he remembers the little details that she loves!" Coach exclaimed, batting his eyelashes. "That's true love!"

"Isn't it?" Schmidt said proudly as Coach clapped.

Winston nudged Coach and said, "Stop it! Even if it's just some ring, it's still a big deal. You can't ask her out again an ask her to forgive you when she has a boyfriend. You're going to make a fool out of yourself if she says no, and then Buster's still gonna try to whoop your ass!"

"True, but I'm willing to risk it," Schmidt said, shoving the box back into his pocket. "If this possibly means having the chance to be with Cece again, then I am going for it!"

With that, Schmidt confidently walked out of the room.

* * *

Cece had advised Jess to try her best to move on from Nick, and in her mind, that meant going after the cute employee. Jeffrey had clearly taken a liking to her, and she was going to go for it. After all, it could be a good experience for her and her moving on abilities... but it could also make Nick jealous!

"Jeffrey!" Jess exclaimed, grinning. "Hey there, Jeffy Boy. How's it going?"

"Oh... um, I'm good," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Wanna go get some drinks?" Jess asked, still smiling at him. "I'd maybe like to spend the night at your special suite like you offered." Her tone sounded quite flirtatious to Jeffrey, which confused him, because he thought she was dating Nick.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Jess," Jeffrey said, shaking his head. "I like you and all, but you have to stay away from me."

"Stay away?" Jess asked, her stomach dropping. She felt like she was getting rejected. "Did I miss something? I thought things were good between us!"

"I thought so, but I think you need to back off," Jeffrey said, growing annoyed. "You know, it's not cool to flirt with other guys while you have a boyfriend! God! I have to go take care of some work. Don't bother talking to me until you have yourself sorted out." Annoyed, he walked away from her.

Boyfriend? How could Jeffrey think she had a boyfriend? She turned around, confused and upset, but then it all clicked when she saw Nick sitting there and laughing like an idiot. He quickly stopped when Jess looked at him. She approached him angrily.

"Nick!" Jess yelled, folding her arms. "What the hell did you say to Jeffrey?"


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you for all the kind reviews! I hope you will like this next chapter. :)

Cruise

CHAPTER 3

* * *

PREVIOUSLY

_"Jess, that's an adorable name. I should probably get back to work. If you see me around, talk to me." -Jeffrey_

...

_"I'm not gonna stop flirting with her, dude. I like her. Do you have a problem with that, sir?" -Jeffrey_

"Yes, I have a problem with that because... um... I'm her boyfriend," -Nick

...

_"I think... I think I can't give Cece space any longer," -Schmidt_

...

"_Nick_!_ What the hell did you do to Jeffrey?" -Jess_

* * *

"Don't you dare panic moonwalk away from me this time, Miller!" Jess shouted, but he had already started to panic moonwalk away. "Nick, I'm serious, stop it. I just want to talk things out with you. Clearly everything isn't going as smoothly as we wanted it to, but we can fix it!"

"I have to go, Jess, I can't talk," he said, and continued to bite his lip and moonwalk out. "There's nothing to fix, actually. Everything is all good. Nothing is awkward, just like I had hoped. I'm all good, Jessica Day!"

"No, you're not," she said, and grabbed his arm to get him to stop. "Sit down, and there will be no yelling here. All I want to do is talk things through with you. If we're really friends now, this should be easy for us."

"Okay, fine. Sit down and talk things through? I can do that," he said, and they both took their seats on the deck chairs.

"I know you said or did something to Jeffrey," Jess said, raising her eyebrows. "He said I have a boyfriend. Earlier he was flirting it up with me, so someone obviously said something to him, and I know it was you!"

"Me? What about the other guys?" Nick asked, starting to get sweaty. "Oh, you know Winston, Coach, and Schmidt, always with their schemes. Or maybe it was Cece trying to protect you from getting hurt because you really shouldn't be dating again so soon!"

"You're still and always will be a terrible liar," Jess said, smiling slightly. "Don't try to pin this on anyone else. I know it was you. Did you have a problem with me dating him?"

He sighed and confessed, "Yeah, of course I have a problem with you dating him! I don't know how to do_ this_, Jess! With all my past girlfriends, it was easy because I didn't live with them. But I have to see you every day. Your home is my home! This is one break up I just can't deal with."

"If you had a problem with me seeing Jeffrey, why didn't you just talk to me like we're doing now?" Jess asked. "Next time I think you're getting jealous, I'm bringing out the feelings stick!"

"Oh, god, no, don't bring that thing!" Nick cried, laughing a little. "I like this... I like being friends with you again. I don't want it to be awkward. Let's be friends again. No more feelings getting in the way. And that means no more purpose for the feelings stick!"

Jess grinned at him and said, "Yeah, we can be friends from now on. And will you please tell Jeffrey that I don't have a boyfriend?"

"Nah, I have other things to d—" Nick began, but saw her glaring at him. "Okay fine, I'll talk to him as soon as I see him next. But you can't go flaunting him around!"

"I would never flaunt," Jess joked, and punched him playfully. "Thank you, Miller. I'm going to get something to drink at the bar. I heard they have really good wines. Wanna come down with me? As friends, of course..."

"Sure, as friends," Nick agreed, and helped her up. "Off we go to drink till we die!"

The two of them went to the ship's bar to get drinks. While they were there, Schmidt found them, but he wasn't looking for them.

"Hey, Schmidtty!" Nick exclaimed, grinning and punching his friend in the arm. "What's up, my man?"

"Nothing," he responded too quickly. "Have you guys seen Cece? I really need to talk to her right now."

"Schmidt, no!" Jess cried, shaking her head. "Whatever you're going to do to her, stop. She doesn't need this right now."

"I just want to talk to her, Jess," he said, folding his arms. "Jeez, you say you want to talk to your model ex-girlfriend who you may have hurt terribly, and then everyone thinks you're going to do something bad when you say you want to talk to her!"

"Makes sense to me," Nick said, shrugging and taking a sip of his drink.

"I am done fooling around," he said, putting a hand up to Nick's face. "Jess, where is she?"

"Fine, she's on the Sky Deck," she gave in, sighing. "But wait! I'm going to literally kill you if I found out you did anything more than talk to her. Got it, sir?"

"Yeah sure, I got it," he said, rolling his eyes.

But Schmidt was going to attempt something that Jess would most definitely hate—try and win Cece back. Sure, his chances were slim, but he was going to risk it. He was definitely still in love with her, and he couldn't sit around and bottle his feelings up any longer.

He confidently marched to the Sky Deck and scanned around until he located her. She was staring at the screen of her phone, jabbing at it and tapping. Schmidt took a deep breath before going in. He stood next to her, tapping her shoulder gently while saying, "Cece... can we talk?"

"Hey," she greeted. "Yeah, in just a minute. I wanted to FaceTime Buster now. He's got plans tonight, so now is my only chance to talk to him until tomorrow."

His heart sank. He hated it when she talked about perfect little Buster and his... perfectness. He stood there awkwardly while Cece jabbed the screen a few more times and called her boyfriend, who was back in LA. The handsome young man appeared on the screen with a grin on his face. He waved to his girlfriend happily.

"Cece, hi!" he exclaimed in his perfect accent. "I'm glad you called. How's the cruise, babe? Are you having fun?"

"It's alright," she said, smiling. "The room kind of sucks, but I think I can manage. How are things back home? What are you up to?"

"Nothing much," he said. "I went to work, got home, and I was just getting ready to go to my friend's party. Anything fun that you're doing there? I'm sure there's lots to do on a cruise ship."

"Yeah, I haven't done much," she responded. "There are activities, but I haven't gotten to them yet. Your day sounds like a blast. I wish I could be there with you."

"No, I'd much rather be there with you!" Buster exclaimed. "Being on a cruise with you sounds way more fun than a party with my friend. I wish I could keep talking, but I did make a commitment to show up, so I'm going to follow up on that and continue getting ready."

"Alright, I'll talk to you later, Buster," Cece said with a smile. "Have fun, bye."

"Bye," he returned with a smile before hanging up.

And Schmidt felt terrible when Cece put her phone away and turned to him. He quickly stuffed the ring box in his pocket. He couldn't give that to her now! She clearly really liked Buster and wanted it to work with him, so he didn't want to be the one to mess it up. He owed that to her, even if it killed him. He loved her so much.

"So, what did you want to tell me?" Cece asked, smiling at him.

He saw how happy she was when talking to Buster, and springing an 'I love you' on her probably wouldn't be the right thing to do. He sighed and quickly tried to come up with some other thing to ask her. He really couldn't tell her he loved her now.

"I actually just wanted to ask you how things with Buster are going!" Schmidt lied.

"Oh... um, they're pretty good," she said, half-smiling. "He's a really great guy, even though all of you guys make fun of how young he is. Wait... why are you asking about him? I thought you hated him."

"No, Cece, I don't hate him," Schmidt said, shaking his head. "Initially, I didn't like that you were dating him, but he's your boyfriend, and I want to try to make nice with him. I want you to be happy."

"Really?" Cece said with a bright smile. "Thank you, Schmidt, that's really sweet of you. Maybe when we get back to LA, you can get to know him a little bit better. It should be fun."

"Yeah! Of course! There's nothing I would rather do than hang out with your young boyfriend!" he exclaimed, faking his enthusiasm.

* * *

Down about ten beers each, Nick and Jess were pretty much the opposite of sober. They were laughing nonstop and slurring their words like crazy.

"I like this, I like you," Nick said, grinning and chugging down another beer. "I like us... being friends. We are like such good friends. It's not awkward! Winston and Coach and Schmidt and whoever the hell else all thought we couldn't handle this, but look at us, we are handling this like mature adults!"

"Yeah!" Jess agreed. "Friends get drunk together! Boyfriends and girlfriends don't! We are like awesome friends who handle our break up so damn well. So damn well, Nick, so freaking damn well!"

"You're a freak, Jess!"

"No, _you're_ a freak!"

And then drunk Nick couldn't stop himself...

The tension was just so strong that he was practically forced to lean in towards her. Much to her own surprise, Jess was leaning in as well, and then their lips touched. It was soft, gentle, and—only like half a second long. It only took Jess that little time to realize what was happening, and even while drunk, she knew it was going to affect her friendship with Nick. Without any hesitation, she shoved him off of her.

"Sorry I tried to kiss you," he apologized, feeling dizzy.

"It's okay."


End file.
